If Rudyard Kipling Kenshin
by fiercejinx
Summary: This is a sort of poemfic. I have taken various instances—dialogues, etc. - from Kenshin’s life and set them to the poem If- by Rudyard Kipling to show how much his life matches up to the ideal in the poem. Chapter 2 will be on Saitou’s life.


A/N: Hey everyone! This fic will be a series of poemfics I have written to the poem If- by Rudyard Kipling set to Kenshin's, Saitou's and maybe Sanosuke and Megumi's life. Till now, I've written it for Kenshin and Saitou and I have some ideas on Sanosuke but I'll post the rest up depending upon the response I get. So let me know how you guys liked it. And if all you guys think it's really crappy, I won't bother posting up the rest.

The dialogues are taken from Miago-chan's Manga translations. I big thanks to Miago-chan! Couldn't have done it without you.

This chapter is Kenshin's life set to the poem. It shows how he was able to follow these ideals throughout his life despite all odds.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai X or the poem If-. The credit for the translations goes to Miago-chan.

**IF – Kenshin Himura**

**IF you can keep your head when all about you  
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,**

_Enishi_**: **_The only thing I wanted to protect, you-you stole her from me! _

_... Despair of the sword that has learned its limits and die!_

**If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,  
But make allowance for their doubting too;**

_Forgive me, Enishi. Your feelings towards Tomoe are not wrong. And your hatred of me is not wrong. But the way you have lived your life for the past 15 years- that's wrong. I'll strike you down here._

**If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,**

_It may take a year or ten or what if the new age is eternally unfinished?_ _I don't know, but I think this will make amends for the victims of the new age. I think it will make amends for the people Hitokiri Battousai killed._

**Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,**

_(Jin'eh fixes his gaze upon Kenshin. Kenshin meets his gaze, breaking the spell.)_

Kenshin: A match, man to man, without trickery like the "one-sided heart." If your sword is equal to mine, you won't need it. Release them, Jin'eh. Or you'll face me.

**  
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,**

_Even though the Shinsengumi were my greatest enemies, I bear them no personal grudge. I feel closer to them than those of the Ishin Shishi._**  
**

**And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: **

_Oro-ro??_

**If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;**

_I would sacrifice my life and my blood-stained sword for an age in which people could live in peace_**.**

**If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;  
**

**If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster  
And treat those two impostors just the same;**

_Yahiko: Hey, Kenshin . . .We won. Aren't we the ones who're right?_

_Kenshin: If you think might makes right, you're the same as Shishio Makoto. Which side was right is up to future generations. What we can do is believe in what we know ourselves to be true . . .and to fight for it. An age in which the strong live and the weak die, where the flesh of the weak is the food of the strong, is wrong. Very wrong._

**If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken  
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,**

_Jin'eh: Stop looking like that, Battousai. When you said you'd kill me, those eyes were better. Your true nature is that of the Hitokiri. As was mine. A Hitokiri is a Hitokiri until death, after all. No one else can change this. I'll watch you from the abyss of hell to see how long you can wander as a vagabond._

**Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,  
And stoop and build 'em up…**

_"For the crime of taking life, I'll pay with my own." There is another way to atone. You can't bring back the people you've killed at your own deathbed. Rather than that, a single person wielding a sword for many--that is the true meaning of atonement. Hitokiri Battousai lives this way in the Meiji Age_.

…**with worn-out tools: **

_(Kaoru thinking) A reversed blade…_

**If you can make one heap of all your winnings  
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,**

_If I can't win, I'll sacrifice myself and risk it all on the last blow._

**And lose, and start again at your beginnings**

_Kenshin: It's no use. I can't find it. The answer--how to atone for the crimes I committed as a hitokiri. I can't find it!_

(Oibore looks at him for a long moment.)

Oibore: Is that so. Even with your weak, confused heart, you won't let go of what you're holding so tight in your hand . . .

(Kenshin looks down at the sword.)

Oibore: You lose what's most precious to you . . . exhaust yourself body and soul. But if you have something you can't bring yourself to throw away, whatever anyone says, that's your only truth.

_**  
**_**And never breathe a word about your loss;**

_Oibore: I guess we've thought enough about the past. Now . . . and from now on . . . the people who never stopped believing in you are waiting for your return!_

(Kenshin seizes the hilt of the sword and pulls it free of the sheath, breaking the chains that held it.)

**If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew  
To serve your turn long after they are gone,**

_Kenshin: The pain of wounds can be overcome with determination and preparation. For those who leave themselves to the fight, it is second nature. But the age you want, forcing pain on the weak who are doing their best to live--as long as there's breath in my body, I will not allow this to happen!_

**And so hold on when there is nothing in you  
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' **

_(Kenshin wrests himself upright to meet Shishio's charge.)_

Kenshin: I can't die! There's no reason for me to die here! There's still someone waiting for me to come back! Nothing . . . nothing is stronger than the will to live!

**If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,**

_Yamagata: Himura. I've finally found you. I've been looking for ten years . . .  
_

Kaoru (thinking): _Yamagata . . . It can't be . . . the general of the strongest unit in the Emperor's Army, the patriot Yamagata Aritomo!__  
_

_Kenshin: You've grown a mustache, Mr. Yamagata._

**If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,**

_Heishin: You're the boss's enemy, aren't you? Don't hide behind your followers, come out yourself. _

_Kenshin: They aren't my followers. Everyone here has my complete trust. They're my friends._

**If all men count with you, but none too much;**

_Katsura: …you must continue to wield your sword for us. The patriot-hunting in the capital has grown worse. If no one stands up to them, total destruction is inevitable. Himura, you must protect the patriots as a mobile attacker. It's cruel of me to ask you, but there is no one else I can ask this of. I want you to make your heart bloodthirsty and wield the sword that soars the heavens._

_Kenshin (getting up and tucking Tomoe's diary into his sleeve): I understand. If I abandon the sword now, all the lives I've taken will be for nothing. Tomoe taught me the many small happinesses people live for. Until there can be an age lit up by these small happinesses, I will wield the sword. But when the new age comes . . ._

Katsura: . . . You'll throw away the sword?

Kenshin: I don't know. But I'll never kill again. Never again . . .

**If you can fill the unforgiving minute  
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,  
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,  
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! **

_Long ago . . . amid the chaos of the Bakumatsu, there was a patriot known as Hitokiri Battousai . . . Though he killed many, he vanished with the end of the violence and with the passage of time he became a legend. Now, in the 11__th__ year of Meiji, a man, known simply as 'vagabond'_ .

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